Other large cities: Graz,
219,500; Linz, 185,300; Salzburg, 145,500; Innsbruck, 115,600
Monetary units: Euro (formerly
schilling)
Languages: German (official nationwide); Slovene, Croatian,
Hungarian (each official in one region)
Ethnicity/race: Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes
Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other
or unspecified 2.4% (2001)
Religions: Roman Catholic 74%, Protestant 5%, Islam 4%,
none 12% (2001)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$319.7 billion; per capita $39,000. Real growth rate: 3.3%.
Inflation: 1.9%. Unemployment: 4.3%. Arable land:
16.59%. Agriculture: grains, potatoes, sugar beets, wine,
fruit; dairy products, cattle, pigs, poultry; lumber. Labor
force: 3.56 million (2007 est.); agriculture and forestry 3%,
industry and crafts 27%, services 70%. Industries:
construction, machinery, vehicles and parts, food, metals, chemicals,
lumber and wood processing, paper and paperboard, communications
equipment, tourism. Natural resources: oil, coal, lignite,
timber, iron ore, copper, zinc, antimony, magnesite, tungsten,
graphite, salt, hydropower. Exports: $158.3 billion f.o.b.
(2007 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper
and paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles,
foodstuffs. Imports: $157.4 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.):
machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal goods, oil
and oil products; foodstuffs. Major trading partners: Germany,
Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands (2006).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 3.564 million (2006); mobile cellular: 9.255 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 65 (plus several hundred
repeaters), shortwave 1 (2001). Television broadcast stations:
10 (plus more than 1,000 repeaters) (2001). Internet hosts:
2.427 million (2007). Internet users: 4.2 million
(2006).
Transportation: Railways:
total: 6,021 km (3,552 km electrified) (2004). Highways:
133,718 km; paved: 133,718 km (including 1,677 km of expressways)
(2003). Waterways: 358 km (2007). Ports and harbors:
Enns, Krems, Linz, Vienna. Airports: 55 (2007).
International disputes: In 2006, Austrian
public protests for the Czech Republic to close the Temelin nuclear
power plant resulted in a parliamentary motion threatening
international legal action.
Slightly smaller than Maine, Austria includes
much of the mountainous territory of the eastern Alps (about 75% of the
area). The country contains many snowfields, glaciers, and snowcapped
peaks, the highest being the Grossglockner (12,530 ft; 3,819 m). The
Danube is the principal river. Forests and woodlands cover about 40% of
the land.
Government
Federal republic.
History
Settled in prehistoric times, the central
European land that is now Austria was overrun in pre-Roman times by
various tribes, including the Celts. After the fall of the Roman Empire,
of which Austria was part, the area was invaded by Bavarians and Slavic
Avars. Charlemagne conquered the area in 788 and encouraged colonization
and Christianity. In 1252, Ottokar, king of Bohemia, gained possession,
only to lose the territories to Rudolf of Hapsburg in 1278. Thereafter,
until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling house,
the Hapsburgs. Austria emerged from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as the
continent's dominant power. The Ausgleich of 1867 provided for a
dual sovereignty, the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary, under
Franz Joseph I, who ruled until his death on Nov. 21, 1916. The
Austrian-Hungarian minority rule of this immensely diverse empire, which
included German, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, and many other lands, became
increasingly difficult in an age of emerging nationalist movements. When
Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in
Sarajevo in 1914, World War I, as well as the destruction of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, began.
During World War I, Austria-Hungary was one of
the Central powers with Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and the conflict
left the country in political chaos and economic ruin. Austria, shorn of
Hungary, was proclaimed a republic in 1918, and the monarchy was dissolved
in 1919. A parliamentary democracy was set up by the constitution of Nov.
10, 1920. To check the power of Nazis advocating union with Germany,
Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss in 1933 established a dictatorship, but he
was assassinated by the Nazis on July 25, 1934. Kurt von Schuschnigg, his
successor, struggled to keep Austria independent, but on March 12, 1938,
German troops occupied the country, and Hitler proclaimed its
Anschluss (union) with Germany, annexing it to the Third Reich.
After World War II, the U.S. and Britain
declared the Austrians a “liberated” people, but the Russians
prolonged the occupation. Finally Austria concluded a state treaty with
the USSR and the other occupying powers and regained its independence on
May 15, 1955. The second Austrian republic, established Dec. 19, 1945, on
the basis of the 1920 constitution (amended in 1929), was declared by the
federal parliament to be permanently neutral.
On June 8, 1986, former UN secretary-general
Kurt Waldheim was elected to the ceremonial office of president in a
campaign marked by controversy over his alleged links to Nazi war crimes
in Yugoslavia. Austria became a member of the European Union in 1995, but
it retained its strict constitutional neutrality and forbade the
stationing of foreign troops on its soil.
In Feb. 2000 the conservative People's Party
formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by Jörg
Haider. A nationalist against immigration, Haider had made several
controversial remarks praising some Nazi policies, which he has since
recanted. His gradual rise to power was credited to voters weary of
decades of stasis under the rule of the Social Democrats. The European
Union condemned Austria's new coalition, froze diplomatic contacts, and
imposed sanctions, accusing Haider of being a racist, xenophobe, and Nazi
sympathizer. Given the controversy, Haider chose not to join the
government, but he continued to wield influence from the sidelines.
In Sept. 2002, the coalition between the
People's Party and the Freedom Party dissolved after a shake-up in the
Freedom Party, instigated by Haider. In Nov. 2002, the People's Party made
large gains in general elections. After failed coalition talks with other
parties, the People's Party again formed a government with the Freedom
Party in Feb. 2003. A government plan to overhaul the country's pension
program led to widespread strikes in May and June 2003—the first
national strikes in decades.
In 2004, Heinz Fischer, known as
the “left conscience” of the Social Democrat Party, was
elected to the largely ceremonial role of president.
Austria's tough laws against Nazi propaganda led
to a three-year prison sentence for infamous British historian David
Irving, who pleaded guilty in Feb. 2006 to denying the Holocaust. In Dec.
2006, he was released from prison early, and deported to England.
Three months after elections, Austria's two main
parties formed a coalition government in Jan. 2007. The leader of the
Social Democrats, Alfred Gusenbauer, became chancellor.
Parliament passed a law in June 2007 that
lowered the voting age in Austria to 16.
